Schools risk bedbug problem

Researchers and public-health officials fear that tiny, brown, blood-sucking bedbugs are going to spread through schools.

Researchers and public-health officials fear that tiny, brown, blood-sucking bedbugs are going to spread through schools.

Bedbugs can easily hitch rides on kids' backpacks and enter new homes, worsening a growing infestation in Franklin County, said Susan C. Jones, an urban entomologist at Ohio State University.

Two Franklin County schools -- one in Whitehall and the other in the South-Western district -- have contacted Franklin County Public Health after bedbug sightings.

Bedbugs can cause sores and itchy, red spots where they feed on humans. And those spots can become infected.

A bedbug problem in schools could be more difficult to treat than head lice, which are notoriously difficult to wipe out, Jones said.

"You know where to look with head lice," she said. "With bedbugs, they can be in the backpacks, easily drop off and get out into other areas. This is the time we need to be talking about it. I don't want to see schools closed down and fumigated."

That happened last year at a school in Kentucky.

Bedbugs have become a problem in schools in Hamilton County, home to Cincinnati. School officials and worried parents have found bedbugs and want to know how to deal with them, said Greg Kesterman, director of the environmental health division for Hamilton County Public Health.

"Anytime with an insect that has the potential to crawl on a person and travel with (people), you're guaranteed that you'll see them showing up in a public facility," he said. "You want to catch the problem before it ever got to a large scale."

The use of harsh pesticides killed the bedbug problem in the U.S. in the 1950s, but many of those chemicals are now banned, and bedbugs have returned to the country with international travelers. They've shown up in all kinds of places, including college dorms.

Trying to avert a bedbug epidemic, the Franklin County Board of Health established a central Ohio bedbug task force. Its job is to keep an eye on the bedbug population, discuss how to handle complaints and inform the public.

It will meet Wednesday and plans to talk about what schools can do to keep bedbugs out and how to deal with them when they come in.

"We really would like to see more school districts show some interest and get involved," said Paul Wenning, the task force's facilitator and special-projects coordinator for the Franklin County health department. "We want to come up with workable alternatives that all schools -- public and private -- in the county can use."

The bugs found in Franklin County schools "turned out to be isolated situations, and they were dealt with pretty easily and pretty quickly, but we anticipate that it's going to get a lot more severe," Wenning said.

"Part of the problem is that until the last four or five months, we had no idea how extensive the bedbug problem was getting in the Columbus area."

But it is extensive, he said: Bugs also have been found in a Head Start center, three hotels and at least six apartment complexes.

School nurses in the Columbus schools are prepared to look out for bedbugs and counsel students or families when they're found, spokesman Jeff Warner said. Although there's no plan yet for dealing with a widespread problem, Warner said the district is willing to work with the bedbug task force's recommendations.

Wenning said one simple fix when a bedbug is spotted is to seal the backpack or coat in a plastic bag. In general, officials don't believe that students should be banned from school if a bedbug is spotted on them or their belongings.

Jones said she trains people statewide to identify and deal with bedbugs, and she hopes that school nurses seek training soon. But she worries that not everyone is on board in the bedbug fight.

Columbus Public Health, for example, hasn't taken a strong stance, she said, because bedbugs don't transmit disease.

"I think they're just asking for trouble," Jones said. "By taking a hands-off approach, they will be drawn into this way too late, when the bedbug problem has exploded."

Jose Rodriguez, spokesman for Columbus Public Health, said the city's development department has a "nuisance team" that can assist residents and landlords.

jsmithrichards

@dispatch.com

Two Franklin County schools have reported sightings. Backpacks can help spread bugs.

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